Oh, mama! Don't make these wedding faux pas

By Sandy Malone, Brides Magazine

Updated 1:56 PM ET, Thu August 7, 2014

Photos: How not to act at a wedding 14 photos

Movie wedding guests behaving badly – Everyone loves a good wedding movie -- especially when the guests are behaving terribly. Here are a few of our favorite faux pas from films. "Wedding Crashers": Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson make a habit of crashing strangers' weddings, feasting on the freebies and occasionally making, uh, friends with tipsy bridesmaids such as Isla Fisher, left, in this 2005 comedy.

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Photos: How not to act at a wedding 14 photos

Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "Bride Wars": Sometimes the worst guest is your best friend. Kate Hudson, center left, and Anne Hathaway play battling Bridezillas whose weddings are inadvertently scheduled on the same day in this 2009 movie.

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Photos: How not to act at a wedding 14 photos

Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "Arthur": In this 2011 remake, Russell Brand reprises Dudley Moore's 1981 turn as a wealthy, hapless alcoholic who will do anything to sabotage his arranged marriage to a socialite, because he's in love with a working-class woman of whom his family does not approve.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "My Best Friend's Wedding": Speak now or forever hold your peace. And for the record now should be weeks, months or years before your longtime crush's wedding to someone else. In this 1997 comedy, Julia Roberts plays a woman who chooses to ignore this advice and realizes she's in love with her male best friend at a most inconvenient time.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "The Hangover": What's the worst thing a best man could do? Lose the groom right before the wedding, leaving the bride-to-be (Sasha Barrese) and her parents (Jeffrey Tambor and Sondra Currie) at a loss. This 2009 box-office smash (which spawned two sequels) retraces the steps of a party of bachelors, played by Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis, who can't find the groom (Justin Bartha) after a wild night in Vegas.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "Bridesmaids": In this 2011 comedy, maid of honor Annie (Kristin Wiig, far right) hits a rough patch right before the wedding of best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph, second from right) and accidentally sabotages everything from the dress fitting to the bachelorette party. Her increasingly erratic behavior strains her friendship with the overwhelmed bride until she's fired from the wedding -- and her friendship.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "Bachelor Party": In this 1984 flick, Tom Hanks plays a good-guy bachelor taken aback when his friends throw him the debauched evening of a lifetime -- complete with some very adult entertainment.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "The Wedding Singer": When's a horrible time to meet your soul mate? When you're about to get married to someone else. In this 1998 comedy, Adam Sandler plays a wedding singer with a star-crossed crush on a bride-to-be (Drew Barrymore).

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "Rachel Getting Married": A bride (Rosemarie DeWitt, second from right) has enough to worry about without wondering if her sister (Anne Hathaway, left), freshly released from rehab, is going to spoil the wedding day with her bad behavior in this 2008 film.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "The Wedding Planner": Yes, the groom (Matthew McConaughey) is adorable in this 2001 romantic comedy, but a wedding planner (Jennifer Lopez) ought to know better than to fall for a client. But then where would the fun be?

Movie wedding guests behaving badly – Bachelorette: A tip -- frenemies don't make good bridesmaids. In this 2012 film, Isla Fisher, left, Lizzy Caplan, center, and Kirsten Dunst are members of the wedding party of a woman they used to taunt in high school, and find that little has changed.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "Runaway Bride": Bridesmaids aren't the issue at Maggie Carpenter's (Julia Roberts) nuptials -- it's her inability to show up at the altar at her own wedding in this 1999 romantic comedy.

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Movie wedding guests behaving badly – "The Five-Year Engagement": Both bride (Emily Blunt) and groom (Jason Segel) are potential no-shows at the altar over the course of a long engagement and behave pretty awfully along the way in this 2012 comedy.

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Story highlights

Oh, mama! Remember: This day is about your daughter

Support the happy couple, but don't try to stand out too much

That means no flirting with the staff and going easy on the booze

Respect the bride's wishes and don't try to change any details

Sandy Malone, star of TLC's "Wedding Island," is the owner of Weddings in Vieques, a destination-wedding planning company off the coast of Puerto Rico. Here, the pro-planner is dishing some of her expert advice for free.

1. Never be late. We've had the MOB show up after the welcome party ended (and she was staying at the venue where the party was held). Worse, another MOB was so far behind schedule on the wedding day that she caused the bride to go down the aisle 45 minutes late. That means the bride lost a chunk of her reception party time.

2. Don't try to steal the show or the photographer. Stay off the center of the dance floor after too many cocktails, and don't take the photogs away from shooting the wedding for your own personal picture requests. It's not your day.

Save money gracefully at your wedding 12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – What matters most to you: food, decor, entertainment, venue? Focus on that and trim costs on everything else.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – People love a job at a party! Lean into your friends' skills. They'll be thrilled to be asked and they know you'll eventually return the favor.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – Trimming the guest list may be the scariest task of all, but do you really, truly need to see your second-grade bestie's boyfriend chugging down your open bar?

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – If you can find a venue that already reflects your personal style, you won't need to splurge for extra decor to make it yours.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – Online fonts are a gift from the design gods. Some fantastic sites offer a bounty of options.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – Printed programs are lovely, but the vows are really the only words anyone is listening for.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – Pick a signature hue that you both love and stick with it. Color then becomes your theme.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – A little online digging can yield tremendous treasures at a fraction of the price of a traditional store.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – Embrace and celebrate the season with flowers that are fresh, local and lovely.

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Save money gracefully at your wedding12 photos

Save money gracefully at your wedding – If you buy shoes you can wear again after the wedding, you'll have a nice little memento when you slip them on for parties and special events in the following months.

5. Don't wear white, ivory or champagne -- or any other color you wouldn't have wanted your own mother to wear on your wedding day.

6. Don't try to match the bridesmaids or the wedding party unless your daughter has specifically requested it. You're not a member of the bridal party, you're the mother of the bride and you should stand out as such, in an appropriate dress.

7. Don't flirt with the staff. More than one inebriated MOB has glued herself to my husband or another unfortunate male staff member at weddings I've planned. We're working and you're embarrassing the bride.

8. Never forget that you're a parent, not "one of the kids." Behave like an adult and resist the urge to plunge into the swimming pool when the drunk 20-somethings make the splash.

9. Regardless of how you feel about your daughter's new spouse, do not express displeasure with that person or their family during the wedding weekend. You never know who can hear what you're saying, so be careful if you are complaining to friends or the wedding planner. There are other guests all around you who may repeat what they overhear you say.

Taking the royal plunge 12 photos

Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Royals! They're just like us except...no. They're not like us at all. Take a peek at some of the most storied royal weddings from the past 60 years. Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Christopher O'Neill exchange rings during their wedding ceremony in Stockholm on June 8, 2013.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Princess Charlene of Monaco and Prince Albert II of Monaco leave the religious ceremony at the Prince's Palace on July 2, 2011 in Monaco. The Roman-Catholic ceremony follows the civil wedding which was held in the Throne Room of the Prince's Palace of Monaco on July 1.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Britain's Prince William and his wife Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, accompanied by her maid of honor Pippa Middleton leave after the wedding service in Westminster Abbey in central London on April 29, 2011.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Prince Frederik and Mary Donaldson married in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 14, 2004.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Wedding of Prince Laurent of Belgium and Claire Coombs on April 12, 2003 in Brussels, Belgium.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Jordanian Crown Prince Abdullah and his wife Rania on their wedding day in Amman on June 10, 1993.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – The newly wed Prince Andrew, the Duke of York and his wife Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, wave to crowds July 23, 1986 from the balcony of Buckingham Palace in London while Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Mother look on.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Lady Diana and Prince Charles wed on July 29, 1981. Here the prince and princess (wearing a David Emanuel wedding dress, leave St. Paul's Cathedral.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – HRH Princess Anne and captain Mark Phillips stand together during their wedding service at Westminster Abbey in November 14, 1973.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – The newly-wed Princess Margaret, the younger sister of Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, leaves hand in hand with her husband the photographer Antony Armstrong-Jones London's Westminster Abbey on their wedding day May 6, 1960. Armstrong-Jones was later made Earl of Snowdon. When the marriage was officially ended two years later, Margaret became the first royal to divorce since Henry VIII in the 16th century.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Queen Elizabeth II, as Princess Elizabeth, and her husband the Duke of Edinburgh, styled Prince Philip in 1947, on their wedding day. She became queen on her father King George VI's death in 1952.

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Taking the royal plunge12 photos

Taking the royal plunge – Prince Rainier III marries actress Grace Kelly in a cathedral in Monaco on April 19, 1956.

10. Never refer to your daughter's big day as "our" wedding. It's not your wedding -- the day belongs solely to your daughter and her soon-to-be spouse. If you keep this one in mind, it might help you avoid the first nine things "thou shalt not do" at her wedding.

Consider this a safe place to dish on parents' bad behavior at your wedding. We're here for you in the comments below, on Twitter @CNNLiving or on CNN Living's Facebook page!